MOSCOW, 9 October 2024. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the findings of a monitoring survey about trust in AI.

Trust but verify

Previously VCIOM revealed that most of Russians were suspicious about using AI widely. Based on the findings of the current survey, three groups of Russians can be singled out in terms of trust in AI:

• High level of trust: smart devices are at the top of the list (smart speakers, watches, chat bots, etc.) and robotics (40%).
• Average level of trust: fewer Russians trust AI in manufacturing industry (32%), health care and transportation (28%, each), and education (24%).
• Low level of trust: areas such as economy, social sphere, military area (19%, each), as well as security (18%), and public administration (13%) gained less than 20%.

Yes to security, no to education!

Russians tend to point out positive impacts of AI-related technologies when it comes to applying AI in law enforcement (37% vs 22%) and banking (33% vs 29%), which cannot be said about education: 39% are confident that AI will decrease the quality of education (28% say it will increase it).  

About a fifth of Russians think that AI will have no impact on the above-mentioned areas (18–25%).

What drives support for AI

• “Effects of young age and digitalization”: the younger Russians are, the more often they trust AI.  Those who grew up with technologies, such as Zoomers and Younger millennials, are less likely to distrust AI (0–4% vs 9% of total Russians and 12–13% in older generations). They show high levels of trust in the Internet of Things (66–69% vs 44% of total Russians), creative field (58–64% vs 42%), robotics (50–52% vs 40%).

Zoomers are also the ones who trust AI in education (49% vs 24% of total Russians): in 62% of cases they say that AI can increase the level of education (vs 28% of total Russians). At the same time, Zoomers’ parents – Older millennials and the Reform generation - are against it: they think AI will have a negative impact on the quality of education (45–48% vs 39% of total Russians and 19% of Zoomers).

“Effect of gender gap in technology literacy”: men are more likely to trust AI in various areas (especially economy (25% vs 15% of women, as well as male areas such as transportation (33% vs 24%) and the military (24% vs 14%)); they also  point out positive effects of introducing AI in education (32% vs 25%), law enforcement (41% vs 34%) and banking (38% vs 29%).

• “Effect of education”: Russians with higher education diplomas tend to be more savvy with AI — only 6% fail to give an answer about trust in AI (vs 25% in the group of those who have incomplete secondary education certificates). They often trust AI in most areas, especially creative area (49% vs 42% of total Russians), robotics (48% vs 40%), industry (38% vs 32%), the Internet of Things (49% vs 44%).
• “Internet effect”: active Internet users trust AI in many areas, for example, creative area (52% vs 42% of total Russians and 20% of TV viewers), the Internet of Things (56% vs 44% of total Russians and 14% of TV viewers), whereas 25% of those who prefer television remain undecided.

All-Russian VCIOM-Sputnik telephone survey was conducted October 4, 2024. A total of 1,600 respondents aged 18 and older took part in the survey. Survey method: telephone interview, stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia. The data were weighted for socio-demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

Key effectiveness indicators, survey of 4 October, 2024:  cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.7780; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0152; response rate (RR)*** = 0.1590. Calculations are based on corporate standard https://profi.wciom.ru/principy_standarty/korporativnyj-standart-po-izmereniyu-rezultativnosti-oprosov-sputnik-vciom/

* CR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews and b) non-interviews with eligible respondents.

** MRR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews, b) interrupted interviews after successful screening and c) all the respondents where it is unknown whether they meet the selected criteria or not.

 ** RR is calculated in the same way as MRR, with the only difference that the number of respondents with unknown eligibility decreases proportional to the percentage of eligible cases in the total number of respondents with identified eligibility or non-eligibility.